Demineralized freeze-dried bone allograft is widely used in the repair of skeletal defects and periodontal disease. It is known that the implantation of acid demineralized bone in the form of a powder in extraskeletal sites may stimulate new bone formation. Various groups including Syftestad, 1982; Urist et al., 1967; Urist and Strates, 1979; Urist and Strates, 1971; and Urist et al., 1983 have suggested that a noncollagenous protein or proteins present in demineralized bone has the ability to induce new bone formation when present within the implanted bone matrix.
Current procedures used to demineralize ground bone involve the use of ethanol to remove lipids and hydrochloric acid to remove the mineral components of bone. These known methods are problematic in that they require prohibitively long periods of time for processing resulting in a very low demineralization rate, require excessive handling of the ground bone being processed, are capable of processing only small amounts of ground bone, and result in a demineralized bone product which exhibits inferior osteoinductivity caused by excessive exposure of bone-inducing proteins in the bone to harsh acids over extended periods of time.